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SAN DIEGO -- Nearly 26,000 Apple iPads will go to San Diego Unified School District classrooms this fall in what is being considered one of the largest iPad deployments for K-12 schools in the country.
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Educational applications are already available for tablets like the iPad, but iBooks turn reading, writing and arithmetic into an interactive experience. The iBooks allow students to highlight, turn notes into study cards and receive teacher updates.
"The more engaging the content is, the more the students want to be in there; They want to be reading, they want to be learning," said Amanda Ferguson, who develops iBooks for educational materials company Pearson Education.
The iBook versions of textbooks have the obvious benefit of being lighter, more compact and easier to carry. But is there evidence that shows these iBooks can be used to help students learn better?
"The key is not the technology on its own, not the tools. It's everything together, put together effectively," said Scott Drossos, senior vice president of Pearson Education.
Drossos points to a recent study called "Project Red" that shows 90 percent of schools with a comprehensive technology program involving teachers, administrators and a coordinated curriculum reporting better test scores. In comparison, of the schools that had either no strong technology support or no technology at all, 70 percent reported better scores.
Some have questioned SD Unified's purchase of $15 million worth of iPads for 340 classrooms. One 10News Facebook fan wrote: "I'm so confused. I thought we couldn't afford to even pay the teachers, how can they afford 26,000 iPads???"
10News learned the district is paying for the iPads through Proposition S funding. The measure, passed in 2008 by 69 percent of the vote, specifically sets aside money for "up-to-date classroom technology."
"I think over the next five years, virtually every school system will be implementing this kind of a strategy," said Drossos.
At $370, each iPad costs the district almost $30 less than retail.
School officials plan to roll out iPads to 5th-grade, 8th-grade and some high school classes this fall.
The software and technology programs the district will use is not yet clear.
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